When Ohio University Police Department Lt.   Steve Noftz received a call about a suicide threat on the   fifth floor of Baker University Center this   past Friday, he said he knew his crisis intervention training would help him handle the situation.

He was at Baker Center within five minutes; it did not take him very long because he did not want to appear in his uniform.
OUPD has not released the name of the man, who is an OU employee.

Noftz, the only officer who spoke to the man during the situation, is   one of 15 OUPD officers who have completed crisis intervention training.

The crisis intervention team, a partnership between law enforcement and mental health professionals, is a program that prepares officers to deal with situations involving people with mental illness. CIT training is free to agencies thanks to a number of mental health organizations that cover expenses, Noftz said.

  One in 10 calls to OUPD involve someone with a mental illness, he said. The program aims to provide options aside from jail, which is not the best place for someone with a mental illness, he said.

The skills learned during CIT training — establishing rapport with the individual, demonstrating compassion and knowing when to let the individual do the talking — were helpful during the roughly   three-and-a-half hours he spent with the man at Baker Center, Noftz said.

CIT training involves a combination of role playing, interaction with those suffering from mental illness and research that teaches participants to recognize and “de-escalate” crisis situations.     

A weeklong training session is held for officers every November, said   317 Board Planning and Reporting Coordinator Diane Pfaff. The 317 Board, a community-based system of mental health services, is one of many local organizations that works alongside OUPD officers in the CIT program.

More than half of OUPD’s officers have completed CIT training, Noftz said.

“Mental illness is the real thing,” Noftz said. “Knowing someone with a mental illness is like knowing someone with heart disease.”